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 Today in Health IT, we're discussing the perfect storm facing the healthcare workforce, eight current issues that frame the challenge. My name is Kate Gamble. I'm managing editor at This Week Health, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming healthcare, one connection at a time.

And I'm joined by Sarah Richardson, president of community development. Sarah, welcome to the show and happy Friday. Happy Friday, Kate. So I have a quick disclaimer. The perfect storm reference here has nothing to do with the Mark Wahlberg movie based on a true story that I've seen about nine times. I love that movie, but it's a topic for another day.

So what we are discussing is a critical issue that's shaping the future of healthcare, the multifaceted challenges confronting the workforce, paul Keckley's recent report, The Perfect Storm Facing Healthcare Workforce, Eight Current Issues Frame the Challenge, provides a comprehensive analysis of these pressing concerns.

Is that the Mark Wahlberg movie that also had George Clooney, where it was like the boat that got stuck out in the storm and had the hundred foot wave? Yeah. Same movie. Okay. Was that with Sebastian? What young or young that wrote that? I

was. I believe so. The book is good too. Yes, it was.

Sorry. I had to sidebar over that. I'm like, wait a minute. I don't remember Mark Wahlberg picking that movie. I just remember George Clooney. Either way. That was terrifying. That like wave that they like the hundred foot face of that wave in that boat. I like just got the chills even thinking about it. So separately, sorry, sidebar had to, I'm like, wait a minute, that was the movie with George Clooney.

In this article, Keckley outlines eight pivotal issues contributing to this perfect storm. And so let's explore them, Kate. Let's look at these key highlights and discuss the implications for healthcare CIOs and the broader industry. Yeah, let's dive in. This is some heavy stuff, so we did want to start a little light, but let's get into it.

So the impact of rising living costs on healthcare workers is the first part. issue here. So many employees, especially those in lower wage positions, are struggling to make ends meet with one in five unable to pay their medical bills. This financial strain can lead to increased stress and burnout, affecting job performance and patient care quality.

When I put my CIO hat on, this Really talks about the importance of implementing technologies that can alleviate administrative burdens. If you can automate routine tasks, we free up staff time. We potentially reduce stress and improves overall satisfaction. And beyond the automation, this is raising a bigger question, Kate.

How can hospitals and health systems leverage technology to improve workforce retention and morale? So solutions like predictive analytics can help identifying staff shortages before they become critical, which allows leadership to proactively address issues rather than reactively filling these gaps.

Yeah, that's a great point. And something that comes up as a driver in a lot of things. So the second point leads us to the role of telehealth and flexible work models in mitigating workforce pressures. So during the pandemic, telehealth skyrocketed, proving that many services could be provided remotely.

And for CIOs, expanding these digital care models could provide a win solution, offering more flexibility for clinical staff while maintaining high quality patient care. And have we fully tapped into the potential of hybrid work models in healthcare, particularly for administrative IT and even some clinical roles?

It's a big consideration. It's going to tie into the second issue in this article, which is the slowdown in healthcare consolidation due to enhanced regulatory scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission's new pre merger notification requirements have made mergers and acquisitions more complex, which has led some organizations to consider layoffs to maintain their margins.

And this is a challenge for CIOs who are tasked with integrating Disparate IT systems during consolidations. When there's fewer mergers, there's an opportunity to, with fewer mergers, there's an opportunity to focus on optimizing existing systems, ensuring that they're efficient and interoperable, which can enhance overall organizational resilience.

And, here's another angle. Is this a moment for CIOs to shift their focus from acquiring new systems to enhancing internal collaboration and interoperability? Investing in cross platform data integration could yield better results than a large scale technology overhaul, especially in the current economic climate.

And I'm sitting here as I hear that and I'm like, okay, until you tell me that we just purchased this clinic over here, we're going to do this thing over here. Every time you shift your focus from one area to another, then something else is going to pop up and then you have to go back and fill that gap.

While that's a smart approach, I'm going to still say that as a CIO, you want to make sure you have a playbook for due diligence, mergers, acquisitions, and enhancing that interoperability and collaboration. And again, that cross platform data integration, unless there is an extraneous reason for not integrating immediately.

I'm a big fan of making sure when you do M& A work, you integrate that as soon as possible, if that's the long term intent, because the longer you leave. an acquired entity on their own systems, the harder the change management is to get the people specifically to want to move into the newer formats or the larger system operating models. I've seen it time and again. So if we also think about the economic pressures of what was covered in this article, potential Medicaid cuts could pose a significant threat. These proposed reductions could destabilize care for 79 million beneficiaries.

And we saw it happen with the new budget that's being recommended that Medicaid specifically is poised to have legitimate massive cuts over the next 10 years. Yeah, this is such a hot button topic right now. As you said, Medicaid funding is absolutely critical, especially for hospitals serving vulnerable populations, and that's a lot of them, let's be honest.

So for CIOs, this means proactively assessing how such funding changes could affect IT budgets and service delivery. So investing in cost effective, scalable solutions becomes crucial. for maintaining quality care amidst financial constraints. But we also need to talk about how data driven decision making can prepare organizations for financial shifts.

Are hospitals leveraging AI and analytics to forecast revenue impacts and make smarter budget decisions ahead of policy changes? That is exactly it. So CIOs can help create more agile financial strategy by using real time insights on patient demographics, payer trends, and the reimbursement models. So hospitals that are in their financial planning and technology investments will be better positioned to weather these types of policy.

And we're getting into the weeds a little bit here, but another critical issue is the increased scrutiny of tax exemptions for not for profit hospitals. There's a growing concern that some of these institutions prioritize profits over patient care, opening the door potential policy reforms.

Transparency, which you and I've talked about just this week, is key here. So a CIO has to ensure their systems can provide clear, accessible data demonstrating not only community benefits and compliance with tax exempt requirements, which thereby reinforces public trust, but it's beyond compliance. This is an opportunity for hospitals to rethink their patient engagement strategies.

If financial transparency is becoming an expectation, why not extend that transparency to patient experiences, billing clarity, and real time quality metrics, which is also what you and I were discussing earlier in the week. Yeah, that's a good point. And, we can't leave out the rise of artificial intelligence and its impact on the workforce.

AI has the potential to modify up to 70 percent of tasks in healthcare delivery and financing, leading to significant workforce disruptions. We call it disruption, but when you embrace AI, it can lead to efficiency gains. It's also going to necessitate re skilling staff. So as a CIO, lead in integrating AI solutions while collaborating with HR to develop training programs that prepare employees for new roles in an AI enhanced environment.

But here's the question. Are hospitals implementing AI in a way that truly supports frontline workers, or are they focusing too much on automation at the cost of human interaction? That is a big question and one that probably deserves its own podcast, but really important thing to keep in mind. And As we move through this, another topic is the growing physician shortage.

That's alarming.

And that's why CIOs have to work on innovative solutions such as AI driven diagnostics, virtual care platforms that are extending physician capacity. But also how can predictive workforce analytics help health systems anticipate and address staffing shortages before they become critical? Yeah, that is another key question that I'm sure we'll look at more.

So as we move through this, the seventh issue that came up is the mental health crisis among healthcare workers. So I'm going to put on my journalist hat. According to the American Medical Association, the burnout rate among physicians is hovering around 49 percent nationally, which was actually an improvement.

from previous years, but it's still high and we've seen that burnout and emotional exhaustion can lead to higher turnover rates and declining workforce engagement. Wow. This is where the CIO can support wellbeing initiatives through better workflow automation, which not only reduces administrative burden, it ensures real time feedback mechanisms that are going to give leadership visibility into staff morale and workload.

Management. And I just want to point out, Kate, we talk about mental health in the workplace. Often we talk about it from a clinician perspective. It's across the continuum of healthcare. I have not spoken to a CIO recently who isn't concerned about even the burnout and workload for their teams as well.

And so it's a universal conversation about how these real time feedback mechanisms can give us. Visibility to not just our clinician staff, but also to our administrative staff and technology teams, because everybody is pushed to the brink when we have to make up for staffing gaps or shortages in our health care systems.

Yeah, I appreciated how you added that. This is not just about physicians. This is burnout across the board. So the final piece in this looks at legislative gridlock, delaying systematic reforms. So many much needed changes in workforce policies, reimbursement models, and healthcare funding remain stalled in Congress, which can breed uncertainty and frustration.

And that is putting it lightly. It is putting it lightly, especially when you're seeing how much and how rapidly things are trying to be changed through budgets and other mechanisms in the government. So CIOs and healthcare leaders, stay engaged with your advocacy efforts, make sure your voices are heard in shaping the policies that are impacting your organization and workforce, and pay attention to what is happening in Washington.

Even if it's not mandated, you're going to hear us often say it's the right thing to do and what makes sense for your health care system to stay in front of so many items that may be creating some chaos. You can bring normalcy into some of these scenarios. this is obviously a lot. The issues we described pose a lot of challenges and questions for healthcare leaders.

And although at times they paint somewhat of a bleak picture, there are of course steps that can be taken. So as a CIO, here are two questions that you can pose to your team and board. First, are we leveraging predictive analytics and workforce planning tools to better manage staff shortages and retention?

And second, are we implementing AI in a way that supports and enhances our workforce, rather than simply automating tasks? Those are powerful discussion points because as both a CIO and even a consumer, you think about leaders that are in pivotal positions right now. Technology isn't just a back office function.

It's a key driver of workforce sustainability and organizational resilience. And what I do love though, is the ability when you're seeing these AI bots, these personalized bots coming into play. They can take. Some of the burden off of you because you tell it what you want it to do. And so when you're training your own personal bot to take on some of your burden or some of your workflow, then that's a win for you because you feel like you're training the bot versus it happening to you.

That's a key function in organizational change is people feel like they have control over what is happening to them, even in some cases when they don't. Yeah, these are powerful discussion points and that's one of the reasons why I'm so grateful to be part of this team and to be part of these discussions we have with leaders throughout the industry for how to move forward and how to, find solutions and share those.

So really important. And. On a lighter note I do hope that if you don't choose to watch Perfect Storm, pick another Mark Wahlberg movie, or as Sarah would say, a George Clooney movie. For your weekend. Okay, you have a dog named Ted. Isn't there a Ted movie with Mark Wahlberg? Yes, there is. There is.

That is not where Ted got his name, but I like that movie too. If I had to pick my favorite George Clooney movie, I still love his reboot of Ocean's Eleven.

We hope that along with movie recommendations, this has given you valuable insights into the future of healthcare workforce and what it means for technology and leadership.

Remember to share this podcast with a friend or colleague. Use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you in the industry. They can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Sarah, thank you as always for joining and thank you all for listening. That's a wrap.